DSR Product Development Analyst Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my summer placement at Centrica. It's difficult to find a job in which you look forward to going in in the morning, yet this was the case with Centrica. Every day I was given the opportunity to develop, to learn, and to use my skill set to the best of my ability to produce some valuable results.

Considering I came in as a summer placement student with little to know commercial awareness or knowledge in the industry, I felt extremely valued by my colleagues. Every person I spoke to was happy to help aid me with any query, whether that be a more technical query or to do with personal development. As a summer placement I was certainly under the impression that Centrica as a company value our inputs.

The internship gave me great responsibilities but also great guidance. There was the perfect balance between managing my own project and asking for help when needed. By allowing me to figure certain aspects out by myself, I was able to develop my skills in independent working and project management - valuable skills which are transferrable across all businesses.

As the project was mainly self run, the amount of work I had on a daily basis varied. Some days I was able to find work which would keep me occupied for a week, and some days I would struggle to find work. However, the support and guidance was there to support me during times of confusion, either by asking my line manager for help or arranging meetings with others to figure out how I could develop my project further.

I was given a fairly large responsibility. Seeking a new opportunity in the market, my line manager gave me the responsibility to create a business case for Centrica by performing some commercial modelling, in order to make a recommendation for the business. Arriving at a conclusion, I was able to make a recommendation for the business, and type of my results in a final report document - ready to hand over to someone else in the team to continue developing the project

I gained many valuable skills working for Centrica, including Excel, project management, stakeholder management, and leadership skills - all skills which are transferrable industry wide. Going from not even knowing what a commercial model was to developing a full financial analysis on the opportunity I was investigating is just one example of how I put the skills gained from the internship into practice.

Being the corporate headquarters, one would expect Centrica's Windsor office to be fairly serious and formal. This was true to an extent, however the atmosphere was much more laid back than expected. There were no strict rules to arrive bang on 9am, and all the staff were extremely friendly and happy to help.

The summer placement was extremely well organised. With weekly emails from the graduate team with updates for the interns, commercial awareness updates from graduates, and weekly one-to-one's with my line manager, I never felt like I was making poor use of my time. The quality of organising with the Company was one of the many reasons why I thoroughly enjoyed the placement.

There were many opportunities for training and development. Right from day one, we had various talks from different people from different areas of the business to discuss the value of interns and graduates. We had a training and development day which focussed on team building workshops, as well as a presentation training day teaching us how to be comfortable with our own voices and in our own space.

The graduate program looks very appealing with Centrica - giving me the opportunity to explore 3 different areas of the business over the course of the two years. By exploring 3 areas of the business and trying out 3 different roles, I am able to expand my knowledge on the industry and help me find out the perfect role for me.